In This Moment Breaks In the New Mayo Civic Center Auditorium

It had been about 2 years since I had the chance to photograph In This Moment. When I saw the show announced at the Mayo Civic Center Auditorium, I knew it was time to cover one of their shows again! I hadn't been to this venue before, but mainly that was because this was apparently the first show since they finished construction. When I arrived, there was a good amount of people walking into the building, but traffic wasn't really that bad and that was nice. The parking lot was easy to get to and find a spot, but the payment system involved putting my $3.00 into a tiny slot on a numbered metal box. I didn't have the exact change and had to leave to find it, so anyone visiting this venue in the future should have the exact amount. Consider that your heads up!

Once I got into the large entryway, everything was easy to get to. The box office was directly to the right and there was plenty of people getting everyone through the security checkpoint. Just outside of the main room, there was ample space for the merch tables and even with the lines there, it wasn't hard to make my way through. The inside space was very nice with about a 5 foot tall stage, a large general admission floor, and a balcony around three sides. Plenty of room and seating with great site lines.

I got settled and got my gear ready to go, and shortly after Little Miss Nasty took to the stage. I'll admit I didn't have time to research the first two acts that I was unfamiliar with. If you know of Little Miss Nasty, you can imagine my surprise when I realized it was a super awesome burlesque show! Most of the guys were probably fixated on the tiny outfits that the girls were wearing, but I quickly noticed that they were performing some pretty difficult dance moves. They came out again just before In This Moment, and had a more rock themed show as well complete with a pole system and a version of Aerial Silk. The second set also included one of the girls singing while she and the others danced. Little Miss Nasty certainly got the crowd revved up for the rest of the show!

The second band, Vimic, took the stage after a quick change. Vimic started out with a instrumental and for a bit, I thought there wouldn't be a singer, but he did come out after a few moments. The crowd went wild when they saw the singer come out and it was clear they had a lot of fans in the audience. I notice a lot of shirts that had the scull hand on them, same as the banner on the stage during the bands set. There was a ton of hair flying during Vimic's performance and it provided a lot of cool shots when the light was up. I certainly have gotten spoiled doing daytime shows and shows with spotlights on the performers! The darker times of their set did not allow for many photo opportunities, but I was able to time some shots with the strobes. Vimic delivered a solid set and the crowd really enjoyed it!

I've photographed Motionless In White a few times before, but they had been at festivals during the day thus far. It was truly a very different show in the darkness of an indoor venue. They still had the Halloween theme that they did at Northern Invasion, but again, the feel was much different. It was also 5 times more difficult to get photos this time! They pumped in fog and stayed with blue, red, and green dim lighting for most of the set. Again, there was a few select times when the strobes popped up and I had to work with timing a lot of my photos for them. As far as the bands' performance, they were spot on. They didn't move around as much as they did on the larger stages I've seen them on, but they still moved around when they could. Ghost, (Devin Sola), didn't have the Carrie outfit on this time, but still looked just as ominous in the outfit that was chosen for this show. Motionless In White always delivers a quality show and it was cool to have caught them two times this year so far!

In This Moment came out after what seemed like a long wait! The curtain that went up after Little Miss Nasty's performance finally was dropped and the band was met with the roar of the crowd happy that they finally got to see the band they were waiting for! I chose to start out in the balcony for photos and was glad I did as the other photographers had to wait until the curtain was out of the way before starting. In This Moment has a very theatrical set with a variety of costume and set changes. They also really like fog....a lot of fog. There was large flexible tubing pumping fog out in three places, fog coming out of the stairs on the platform Maria Brink come out onto and CO cannons placed in various places throughout the stage. I was actually disappointed that Maria didn't add to the fog with her CO gun she used last time I saw them! As you can imagine, it is very difficult to get photos with all that fog in the air. This is one of the main reasons I was excited to photograph In This Moment again, as I had a better grasp on what to do than the last time! There was a good mix of songs that changed the pace of the show quite a few times slowing down the show for two songs, Maria Brink's piano solo for "Lay Your Gun Down", and the slightly slower beat of "Oh Lord". Of course the encore, "Whore", was met with screams of pleasure from the crowd! In This Moment put on a performance that was certainly as good as I had remembered. I look forward to when they return to this area again!